Order to be enforced if great-uncle fails to comply
 
                  From staff and wire reports

                  MIAMI (CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno has asked Elian Gonzalez'
                  great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and cousin Marisleysis to accompany Elian to
                  Washington on Thursday so he can be reunited with his father, Juan Miguel
                  Gonzalez -- or they must turn the boy over at Opa-locka Airport near Miami at 2
                  p.m. EDT.

                  If the family does not comply, Reno told a news conference early Thursday
                  morning that she would enforce the order to hand the boy over.

                  Reno spoke after meeting for two-and-a-half hours with Elian, Lazaro and
                  Marisleysis at the Miami home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin.

                  "Lazaro and his daughter (Marisleysis) care deeply for Elian," Reno said.
                  "Now it is important to ensure that the transfer happens in the best and
                  least traumatic way."

                  Reno said a neutral house had been prepared near Washington, D.C. for the
                  family to meet, away from "the glare of the media, the public and the
                  Cuban officials," where the transfer could take place and where the family
                  could discuss the resolution of this issue.

                  "Either Lazaro or Marisleysis or both of them can travel (with Elian). We have
                  provided the relatives the opportunity to travel and participate in the
                  orderly transfer, or bring (Elian) to Opa-locka airport to fly to Washington."

                  The attorney general said if the relatives did not comply "we will enforce the order."

                  Reno would not spell out how enforcement would take place, adding only that
                  "We are going to try to enforce it in a way that is fair, firm and prompt."

                  The attorney general said Juan Gonzalez did not go to Miami to meet the relatives
                  at O'Laughlin's house because "it is too dangerous to come to South Florida with
                  the tensions that are there.

                  "They (the Miami relatives) have been given the opportunity to go to Washington,
                  to stay during the transfer of Elian to his father."

                  Reno added that after the transfer the relatives would have the opportunity to try
                  to convince Juan Gonzalez to work things out. She said she knew the relatives wanted
                  to try to persuade Elian's father to stay in the U.S. and they would be given the chance
                  to talk to him.

                  The INS late Wednesday presented the family with a letter outlining instructions
                  for Elian's transfer at Opa-locka Airport.

                  Father-son bond 'never...severed'

                  Reno said the bond between the boy and his father, while interrupted for four months,
                  "has never, never been severed.

                   "Without any Cuban officials present I heard Juan Miguel say in his own words he
                   loves his son and wants him back," she added.

                   The attorney general admitted that the Miami relatives had told her they were reluctant
                   to allow Marisleysis to fly, because of her recent hospitalization. She said they had
                  discussed alternatives but would not reveal what they were.

                  "The best way to handle something like this is to have the least disruption for the
                  little boy," Reno went on.

                  "The triumph for the rule of law would be for everybody to come together and
                  work things out peacefully."

                  Reno would not comment on any time frame involved for enforcing the order,
                  should the Miami relatives fail to deliver Elian to the airport. She also admitted
                  that, on transfer of the boy to his father, there was "nothing to prevent Juan
                  Miguel taking Elian back to Cuba immediately."

                  She did, however, indicate that the father has said "This is my son, I want him
                  back. Afterwards I want to meet (the Miami relatives) and work out the issues."

                  Great-uncle: 'They will have to take this child...by force'

                  After the meeting with Reno, Lazaro said he would not hand over Elian at
                  Opa-locka Airport. "They will have to take this child from me by force," he
                  added.

                  Manny Diaz, an attorney for the family, said Reno and Immigration and
                  Naturalization Commissioner Doris Meissner heard ample evidence during the
                  meeting that Elian does not want to go back to Cuba, but refused to take that into
                  account.

                  He said he would seek a federal court injunction to block the government from
                  instructing the family how to hand over Elian.

                  After the meeting O'Laughlin said Elian had gone from lap to lap talking with
                  Reno and Meissner. She described the 6-year- old's interaction with the Justice
                  Department official as "precious."

                  Reno "was very respectful and they were very honest," O'Laughlin said. "The
                  pain of this family and their understanding of the pain of Juan Miguel was very
                  evident. They have expressed over and over again their ... desire to be a loving
                  family, whole again."

                  College spokeswoman: Meeting 'like a funeral'

                  O'Laughlin, the president of Barry University and a close friend of Reno, also
                  said the illness of Marisleysis would make it impossible for his Miami relatives to
                  travel to Washington on Thursday.

                  During the family meeting, a Barry University spokeswoman who was
                  inside the home told CNN that Elian occasionally ran around the adults while
                  they talked, watched the Cartoon Network and played with toy cars and a
                  musical Easter bunny that O'Laughlin had.

                  The spokeswoman described the meeting as resembling a huge family
                  gathering or even "like a funeral ... when all the adults are busy and a child is just
                  running around."

                  Eighty Miami Beach police officers were stationed outside the home, which also
                  was the site of Elian's January reunion with his two Cuban grandmothers.

                  O'Laughlin was picked by Reno to host that meeting as a seemingly objective
                  intermediary, but afterwards the nun sided with the Miami relatives, saying the
                  boy should stay with them.

                  Miami-Dade police were instructed to have "a couple of hundred" officers
                  stationed at the airport starting at 5 a.m. EDT Thursday, said police spokesman
                  Patrick Brickman.

                  From there, Elian would be flown by government plane to a still undisclosed
                  location and ultimately a reunion with his father.

                  Father favors force 'if all other scenarios fail'

                  On Wednesday night, Juan Gonzalez, his second wife and their infant child
                  attended a reception at the Cuban Interests Section. Supporters of Elian's father
                  described Juan Gonzalez as "very frustrated."

                  "He told us that he had given the green light -- if all other scenarios failed -- to
                  use force, federal marshals, to go and retrieve the child and bring the child to
                  him," Ed Rabel, an official with the group Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy,
                  said on CNN.

                  An attorney for the Cuban father said the reunion needed to be soon for Elian's
                  sake.

                  "Every day of delay, as we have seen in the recent hours, does enormous
                  damage to Elian. He needs to be with his father," said attorney Gregory Craig. "It
                  is time for the Justice Department to instruct Lazaro Gonzalez to follow the law
                  and to do the right thing; this son needs his father."

                  Psychologist arrived with Elian

                  Elian was unwilling to leave his great-uncle's home Wednesday morning without
                  assurances that his second-cousin Marisleysis -- hospitalized since this weekend
                  -- would be joining them, O'Laughlin said.

                  The family said Marisleysis has filled a need for Elian created after his mother
                  took him on an ill-fated boat trip from Cuba to the United States. His mother and
                  10 others drowned during the journey last November, while Elian and two others
                  survived.

                  The family picked Elian's cousin up at Mercy Hospital, where she has been
                  treated for fatigue and other problems the family has linked to the custody
                  dispute over Elian. Two family lawyers and family spokesman Armando
                  Gutierrez also were on hand at the nun's house.

                  Elian, dressed in a green parka and accompanied by his great uncle, came out of
                  the Little Havana home and left in a car driven by O'Laughlin. A psychologist
                  was also with Elian and his uncle.

                  A planned Washington reunion between father and son collapsed early
                  Wednesday when Lazaro Gonzalez came out of his home and told protesters
                  gathered nearby that Elian did not want to go and the trip was off.

                    Correspondents Susan Candiotti and Pierre Thomas, Miami Bureau Chief John
                          Zarrella and The Associated Press contributed to this report.